Technology Updates

SMART Notebook Upgrade – Building Representative at Summer Conference

The district is hosting a SMART Notebook vendor share at Summer Conference. Each elementary building is asked to send one teacher to one of the repeated sessions to provide input into a possible decision on upgrading SMART Notebook to the SMART Suite of Applications, pending available funding. Please let me know if you would be wiling to do thisby April 15. . We only need one teacher. The teacher should be one who is currently using SMART Notebook regularly. This one teacher in your building will receive a 90-day free version of the software to pilot for the remainder of the school year – and into the summer.

Scribble Book Creator APP

This APP was pushed out to all student iPads via a FREE promotion – normally $4.99 per APP. If you are not seeing this APP on student iPads, please notify iPadHelp@olatheschools.org.

EOY District Testing updates

I promise this is the last change on this:)

Grades K-5: You do not have to give the District End of Year Math Test. (It is optional--you can give it if you would like)

Grades 3rd-5th will not need to administer the EOY District Reading Assessments since we will have the State Assessment Data.

1st & 2nd will need to administer EOY District Reading Assessments in addition to their QRI Assessments.

As with all buildings, they will need to do EOY Rigby for K along with their individual K assessments, and the QRI for 1st -4th (5th grade completed theirs for their targeted students and turned them in on April 1st.)

Let me know if you have any questions.

April 15

Scoring the MDPT on the Assessment Scoring Day – April 15

Look for an email to describe our day!

· On the district-wide assessment scoring day all elementary teachers (except those in grade 2), all social studies teachers, all science teachers, all ELL teachers, all Title I teachers, and all middle-school ELA teachers will score the MDPT. Four hours have been set aside for scoring.

· Teachers will score the MDPT at their own building.

· The first hour of scoring will be spent becoming familiar with the scoring rubric and watching a PowerPoint that explains the process of scoring the MDPT. Teachers will then login to ScorePoint website and must complete the ScorePoint online training.

· Teachers will then score MDPT’s for the next three hours. Teachers should be provided two fifteen-minute breaks.

· An email will be sent to each teacher involved in scoring on April 14. It will have the PowerPoint, Scoring Rubrics, and login information / password for ScorePoint.

Assessment updates

1. Have test proctors review the end screen to make sure that all questions have been answered.

2. When students come to a soft break in the test, they must press “End” to launch the next section. Proctors should review this screen as well. Look at the section titled “Soft Breaks” on the next page for more information.

3. Do not allow a student to begin the next stage or part on the ELA or Mathematics tests if they have omitted items (unanswered questions). Those items will be counted as incorrect and may affect the difficulty of the next test part.

4. For ELA and Mathematics, plan on at least 15 minutes between test sessions.

5. After completing a test part for ELA and Mathematics, the next stage or test part will not appear on the student’s menu until CETE chooses the next form. This should take around 15 minutes. If a student is missing the next test part or stage, it is because CETE has not selected the next form. It is not a sign that the student needs to be reactivated.

6. ELA and Mathematics tests are stage adaptive. The number of test sections (these have soft breaks) will vary among students even though they are on the same stage. For instance, all students have 15 questions on ELA stage 4. However, some students have one section, others have two sections, and others have three sections.

7. Students do not have to be reactivated between soft breaks. Some teachers have been calling for reactivations when a student have finished a soft break.

8. Science tests do not require a “wait time” between stages or test parts.

9. Students should finish a test part on the same day that they began the test part. Exceptions would be student illness, technology problem at the building or at CETE, or student ran out of time at the end of the day (if this is happening, you should increase the length of the testing period). KSDE does not want students to take a test part over two days except in rare circumstances.

10. Use the correct number for the assessment office.

a. From a cell phone – 780-8168

b. From a district phone – 5006-8168

11. Every ELA test part requires the use of headphones or ear buds.

12. Every student will have one test part on ELA and Mathematics that contains only field test items for the next year. Some students are given the field test questions on stage 2, some are given the questions on stage 3, and others receive the questions on stage 4.

13. If the student cannot answer a question due to some technical issue (the mouse won’t work, even though the student clicks on an answer choice it is not selected, etc.), try pressing Ctrl-Alt-Delete on a laptop or desktop. On an iPad, you will have to do a hard shutdown. The student should log in on a different device. Typically, the student will be to log on without being reactivated.

14. Adjust the volume of the testing device prior to taking a test.

15. If a student receives a message about “lost connection” while testing on an iPad, completely shut down the iPad with the problem and have the student take the test on another device. They should be able to log in without a reactivation.

16. If a student logs into Take A Test and see multiple tests, please read KITE enhancement – School ID number added to the test launch buttons in KITE on the next page.

KITE enhancement – School ID number added to the test launch buttons in KITE: When students login to take a test, they will now see the school ID number on the test launch button under the test name. Multiple tests could appear if a student has multiple TEST records, usually caused by having multiple school enrollments. It is important that the student select the test with the correct school ID so that they take the correct test.

Soft Breaks

Soft breaks are built into the tests. Soft breaks are ways that we can transition students from a calculator section to a non-calculator section. You will also find soft breaks that have built into ELA tests.

· Students should read carefully the instructions on the review screen.

· If a box appears above the end button, then the test continues to the next section.

· The box states: You are not finished. Choose end to launch the next section.

· Students would then continue to answer the remaining questions in this test section, but would not be able to return to any item before the soft break.

Welcome!

TEACHING & LEARNING UPDATES

District Math Curriculum Coordinator

I wanted to update you on a new team member who will be joining the Teaching & Learning Family. Thursday evening, the BOE accepted the hiring of Dr. Bridgette Stevens as our new Math Curriculum Coordinator. Bridgette is currently serving as an Assistant Principal at Beadle Middle School in the Millard Public Schools in Omaha, Nebraska. Her diverse professional roles include District Instructional Facilitator of Secondary Programs, K-12 Math Curriculum Specialist, Assistant Professor of Mathematics at the University of Northern Iowa, and Middle Level Math Teacher. Bridgette and her husband have one son. She will be relocating to Kansas in late June and will spend time at the end of the month transitioning with our talented Nancy Hughes. Please join me in welcoming Bridgette!

Mark your calendars

Its that time of year, where the calendar starts to fill up very fast with new dates and information. I will continue to have this in our Staff Memo--and if there have been changes I will note those.